The UW Police Department (UWPD) had a search warrant signed Jan. 24 covering evidence details, including the suspect’s phone, and naming two suspects involved in the Jan. 20 Red Square shooting.
With the return of the warrant, forensic investigator Chuck Pardee wrote that the suspect’s phone was cleared “through a factory reset of some sort.” The phone in question belongs to one of two suspects who turned themselves in late the night of the shooting, Marc Hokoana. The other suspect is his wife, Elizabeth Hokoana. Both are named and identified in the affidavit records.
The male suspect is a current UW student. His name was gathered through an internet trail left in an article by The Seattle Times, and was plugged into the UW Directory on Jan. 29, where his name revealed him as a registered senior. His name and contact information have since been taken down from the UW Directory.
Matt Saavedra, associate director of technical services at the Office of the University Registrar, verified that “the student directory reflects currently enrolled students only.”
More evidence was also collected under the warrant, and UWPD Detective William Bergin’s recount said the two suspects walked into the department’s headquarters with their hands up, saying they were involved in a “‘self-defense’ shooting.” They both stated that they understood their rights and didn’t want to talk without an attorney.
Marc and Elizabeth (or Lilly) Hokoana, along with the shooting victim, are the only people involved in the case. On Jan. 23, UWPD Major Steve Rittereiser said “we are not looking for additional suspects or individuals involved.”
Records also show that the suspects’ car was collected, which held the Glock handgun supposedly used in the incident, documentation proving their ownership of the car, and some receipts showing that the suspects had access to the car that day.
The victim, a 34-year-old non-UW student, wishes to remain unnamed as he recovers from his injuries due to fears of harassment. The victim has undergone multiple emergency surgeries at Harborview Medical Center since the shooting, and remains in the hospital.
“Obviously it’s an important case, but we don’t look at it as having more pressure than any particular case,” Rittereiser said.
The UW community’s response has ranged from people demanding answers and quicker investigation to people asking how they can help.
“We try to give personal responses to each person who has a question,” Rittereiser said. “Most of the time, there’s just some concern we need to communicate with them about certain things, like whether or not it’s illegal to bring a gun on campus. In other situations, people just want to understand why it takes so long.”
The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab is processing evidence, including the handgun. In addition, detectives have been combing through protest videos that have been both found and sent in, timestamping each segment to create a chronological sequence of events from various camera angles. A private video technician has also been hired by UWPD for additional expertise.
“By now, we’ve looked at most of [the videos],” Rittereiser said. “You kind of go through them again and again — four or five times, maybe more — just to make sure you understand some of the elements of what’s going on.”
UWPD anticipates that people will send in more videos because many other cameras and phones can be seen operating within the videos they already have.
“We seem to think there’s more people that could potentially send us stuff that could be pretty important,” Rittereiser noted. “It’s more of a collection of all the angles, and all the opportunities to see things. Like a football game, for how many times a camera takes a look at the replay, sometimes those angles change your mind about what happened.”
The UWPD can be contacted online, through tip hotlines at 206-685-8477, and by phone at 206-685-8973.
Kelsey Hamlin | Portfolio 
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